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Case Study Imagery by Vitra Design

This morning I enjoyed having a browse through the Vitra website which always showcases some great furniture, I think they’re one of the better websites to have a look at and they seem to take great care over their web presence. Obviously inspiration isn’t always readily available on these more corporate sites due to the fact that they keep their photography shot in a professional studio with a white background, not that great as it doesn’t show the piece of furniture in it’s actual environment.

So I was pleased and was possibly grinning like a cheshire cat when I came across this fantastic section on their website under a certain array of products called ‘Case Study’ which showcases the furniture, objects and their interiors. Now I have to say, the photography is really incredible and has been snapped by various photographers such as Isabel Truniger and Nacho Alegre, the tones and graining are fantastic. You can definitely tell these guys love film photography.

The subject though was my main interest and I was particularly taken aback by the Organic chairs designed by Charles Eames & Eero Saarinen in 1940 (seen up top and below). These caught my eye since I was lucky enough to catch the Eames documentary film titled ‘The Architect & The Painter’, which by the way if you haven’t seen is really inspiring, and I liked the story of how Charles and Eero created this chair for a competition held in 1941 by the Museum of Modern Art. Basically this chair was technically ahead of it’s time but due to the lack of suitable manufacturing technology they were never allowed to go into production, they just weren’t possible to produce. Obviously times have changed but I still think it’s great to admire this piece and learn about the history behind it and the design process. And as Eames said, “What works is better than what looks good – the looks good can change, but what works works”.

Check out the selection of imagery that I collected below, you can find plenty more by browsing the vitra product pages under the heading ‘gallery’.